Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) is one of the most promising healthcare stocks according to Wall Street analysts. On June 10, Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) withdrew a $500 million proposed underwritten public offering it had announced just one day earlier. The company cited unfavorable market conditions.
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The plan was to use the proceeds to fund ongoing research and development of ivonescimab, the company’s lead drug. Ivonescimab is a bispecific antibody that simultaneously targets the two proteins on which cancer cells rely to grow and hide from the immune system. The drug is currently the most closely watched asset in Summit’s pipeline and is already approved in China.
Summit had proposed the offering just nine days after its Chinese partner Akeso presented Phase 3 data from a China-based lung cancer trial of ivonescimab. The results showed a 34% reduction in the risk of death compared to a competing therapy. However, a CNBC report raised the concern that the data may not be as useful to Summit because the trial was conducted in China.
CNBC quoted Dr. Suresh Ramalingam, executive director of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, who said: “I’m mindful of the fact that this trial was done exclusively in China, and that brings up the question of how do these data apply to patient populations outside of China, and that will require future investigations.”
Dr. Ramalingam explained that their concerns are not that the drug doesn’t work. In fact, he called the results good news for Chinese patients. Instead, their concern is that one can’t assume results from a China-only trial will translate to US or global patients, especially when there are biological reasons to expect the response to be different.
Summit Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMT) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. Its lead candidate, ivonescimab, is a novel bispecific antibody targeting both PD-1 and VEGF pathways, and is currently being evaluated in multiple Phase 3 trials for non-small cell lung cancer and other solid tumors.
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